Round 1 goes to the stupid.

Or so it seems. 

Apparently I will not be buying the jail from the imbecile that owns it now.  I may still buy it, but it will either be from the County after they seize if for non-payment of the property tax or from the lender assuming he forecloses on the mortgage, which is in default, and pays the taxes himself before the County takes it.

It's really too bad.  I was truly looking for a solution where everybody wins.  But in trying not to loose the present owner has forfeited the game.

Denise, if you are reading this, you can send my uncashed check to the address you have on file.

Accomplishing stuff instead of wasting time on Facebook for a change.

So now that my craigslist water heater’s been installed (and thus is no longer in my way in the shop…) I’ve rearranged the shop and made it more ‘shop like.’ 

My $25 yard sale find in the form of a DeWalt radial arm saw is now in line with the porch door.  That way I can open the door to work with much longer stock than I could where it first landed in my shop. 

The yard sale find in the form of a back-up generator is now where last years failed experiment in the form of a (now deceased) tomato plant was. 

The little computer table that had been in the living room before finding it’s way to the shop (also a yard sale find) is now where the radial arm saw was and will shortly be transferred to storage pending its being listed on craigslist.  (You wouldn’t happen to need a nice little computer table by any chance?  I’ll give you a really good deal on it…)  Once brought to storage the table will be replaced by my Black & Decker Workmate (which is yet another yard sale find from a bunch of years ago.)

I had to reposition the main power strip and reconnect everything because of the equipment’s new locations in the shop.  Yes, there are several significant power tools plugged into the same power strip.  They only get used one or at most two at a time.  So I don’t think the load is a problem.  (The second being either the compressor or the shop vac.)  The power strip has its own breaker anyway, just in case.  I don’t remember if the power strip was from a yard sale of not…

A bunch of other little stuff has been shuffled around to make things a bit neater.  And a bunch of boxes of stuff that piled up out there while the shop was unusably filled with a water heater have been moved to Galileo’s cargo bay pending delivery to storage.

As for all this yard sale stuff…  Why pay full price?  That vintage radial arm saw set me back $25.  A modern RAS if purchased new would cost at least $250 for a piece of junk that wouldn’t last and would potentially be dangerous to boot.  A good saw comparable to my yard sale find would probably set you back a grand or more.  I have seen high end radial arm saws listed on-line for as much as $3,500 (!) though I don’t think this one’s quite in that league…  All mine needs is a good cleaning and for the table to be replaced, which, if used the way the previous owned did, is sacrificial anyway.  I know better and will set it up right, so that won’t be an issue in the future.

A lot of this ‘getting the shop back in shop shape’ was spawned by last night’s efforts to fix the power head of my electric string trimmer.  I managed to get the job done – and the lawn mowed – but it wasn’t the most convenient shop that I’ve ever worked in by any stretch of the imagination!  This arrangement should be much better and when it’s finally organized the way I want, it may actually be a pleasure to spend time out there puttering.

I sure hope so!

Hardball

It’s about time I update y’all on the status of our offer.

Since my last post we’ve bounced back and forth several emails and even faxed in a new set of offer papers with updated figures and dates.

And we’ve waited.

And waited.

I finally heard back from the realtor last Thursday.  Supposedly "the seller" wants another prequel letter.  And "he" wants me to double my earnest money deposit right after the inspection.

I sent back an email that said NO in no uncertain terms.

I pointed out that a contract can be made legal with as little as one dollar changing hands.  They already have a check in hand for a lot more than that.  I also stated unequivocally  that I will not apply for a mortgage on a house that has not been inspected and for which we have not yet settled upon a price.  While I was at it I also mentioned that they already have a prequel latter from another property I was looking at just prior to my offer on this one.  And that house was about double the range we are negotiating in for this one.

The final tactical nuke I dropped in that email was to point out that they have had this listing for at least a year and a half.  “In this buyer’s market it would be unwise to chase away the one serious offer you’ve had on this property.”

I also signed it more formally than I’ve been signing my emails up to this point.

The reply was cordial and made no mention of increasing the deposit or requiring another prequel letter.  We’ll see if future correspondence is any more timely…

One more thing about those pocket knives…

The fact that the government is perfectly willing to turn around and sell them to the general public after having confiscated them as ‘dangerous weapons that simply can’t be permitted in the hands of the general public’ when at the airport just goes to show that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the objects or the people possessing them.  The whole point of this unconstitutional exercise is to desensitize the sheep to the idea that the government can take your possessions any time they want and without any kind of warrant.  A little erosion here, a little shaved off the edges there...  Pretty soon the Bill of Rights will be thought of as a quaint idea that was nice in its time.

I may be willing to purchase and use or give away knives that were once ‘confiscated’ by our own government.  But that in no way indicates my acceptance of the government practice of stealing them in the first place.

Flea Market Finds

I went to the Hollis Flea Market on Sunday.  I was mostly there to see friends and actually hoping not to spend any money.  Well, fiat.  You know...

So there I was digging through a pile of TSA confiscations and having a grand conversation with a new friend.  The way we were chatting the folks running the table thought we'd known each other for years!

Among the government stolen pocket knives I picked out four little Victorinox classic size folders that came home with me.  I've always had a soft spot for a good quality pocket knife.  More than a year ago I got my Victorinox Mini-Champ from a bucket of knives much like this one at an antique shop on some property in Hillsborough I was interested in buying actually during the showing!  It now goes with me everywhere I go riding in its custom fitted 'magazine pouch' in my pancake cellphone holster.  I didn't find another in this pile unfortunately.  The closest was a new-to-me Rambler.  The others are an Escort in purple advertising Nexium (whatever that is...), a vintage Classic in blue with the old big P Piper Aircraft logo and no key ring/lanyard loop, and a standard red scaled Rally with a straight screwdriver instead of the current Phillips and a nail file without the screwdriver tip. 

At Mum's friend 'the movie man's' table I bought a book on antique kitchen stuff.  That will come in handy as we restore the B&B's kitchen to reflect the period when the house was built.  That may be a bit of a challenge since the entire kitchen was gutted and replaced with modern cabinets and appliances.  Well, many of the appliances have gone AWOL, but fortunately the original wood kitchen stove is still there waiting to be restored.

Back to the flea...

The only other thing I picked up was a pair of cufflinks.  They're marked 14K.  The guy who sold them to me pointed that out and said that he didn't think they really were.  I bought them anyway. because they are both little working abacuses.  I used to actually use an abacus every day at work.  Back when I was drafting 'on the board' I would frequently need to add up a series of dimensions to work out the over-all length of a part.  As a check I would first do the math on my calculator.  Then I'd re-do it on my abacus.  If there was ever a discrepancy it always turned out that I'd fat-fingered something on the calculator.  I can't think of an instance when I'd screwed up on the abacus.  With that you can actually see the numbers as you are working the math.

So I looked around on-line and found several sellers who had the same set of ofcufflinks.  All were being sold as real 14k gold.  For grins and giggles I weighed them up and checked the price at Kitco for scrap 14k.  My $10 cufflinks, if real, would fetch over $200!  I have no intention of scrapping them.  What I need now is a shirt that I can wear them with.  :-)

So that was my weekend at the flea.

Another analogy

I am a Space Shuttle Pilot.*  I’m well trained and I’m among the best of the best at what I do.

Putting me in a Nuclear Submarine and expecting my training in the Shuttle to directly transfer to a similar level of competency piloting the Submarine is nonsense!

Both the Shuttle and the Submarine are vehicles.  They both go from one place to another and they both operate in a challenging and dangerous three-dimensional environment. They are both very complex systems.  And they both do their jobs well.

But even with those similarities it is obvious that they are totally different.  The user interface is incompatible and the skills needed to operate them safely much less with any degree of proficiency are not transferable.  And asking me to fly the Space Shuttle underwater to do the job of the Submarine is simply stupid!

If you need something welded together don’t use duct tape!

If you need a facilities guy to work in AutoCAD don’t ask a product guy who specializes in SolidWorks to slap something together for you! 

Mickey Mouse is a cartoon.  He has no place in engineering!

What’s more, I have Asperger’s Syndrome.  Don’t force me to work under a tight time-line on a high visibility project in an area where I have no expertise!

I do not like being set up to fail!

You need the job to get the loan to get the house!

You need the job to get the loan to get the house!

You need the job to get the loan to get the house!

You need the job to get the loan …


* This is an analogy.  Don't take it literally, even though I might if reading this...


UPDATE: Not only am I flying my Space Shuttle under water, but my navigator is taking a nap!

The End of an Era

I read in the news today that Claude Choules passed away today.  He was 110 years old.  What makes his passing significant for more than just his family and friends is that he was the last known surviving combat veteran of the Great War.  What we have come to know as World War I has truly come to an end.

So the process continues.

After getting some corrections made to the offer papers and ironing out a few more details with the Realtor, the latest batch have been signed and submitted.  The ball is now in the seller’s court.  Frankly, I’m getting a bit antsy.

Work: an analogy…

You’ve been flying R/C planes for years and you’re good at it.

Now we’re going to train you as a helicopter gunship pilot.

OK.  Now that you’ve been through the training and have a couple of weeks experience in a chopper here’s your Indy car.  The race starts in 20 minutes.

Make us proud!

I’ve done none of the above.  But my latest assignment at work seems as connected to my training and experience as that guy jumping in an Indy car and thinking he’s actually got a shot at winning the race.

CNN reports:

Osama bin Laden is DEAD!